One+One = Stupid
posted by Scott in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers
What is design? Is it an amalgam of form and function? A compromise? Probably. The process of design is the act of combining the aesthetic with the pragmatic. It isn’t always easy, but one hopes that a successful balance is struck in the end.
When considering wine closures, natural cork is near perfect. It performs its function: by not letting the wine out, while allowing it to age. On the aesthetic side, it looks and feels good. Of course, it’s only near perfect; it is a relative (compared to, say, a screwcap) pain to open and it has that nasty association with that dreaded wine fault, corkiness. Now wines can be tainted by TCA, the technical shorthand for corkiness, without being corked, though instances of corked wines are fewer in those bottles stoppered by screwcaps. For an overview of the whole debate, start here.
This post is not about me weighing in on the merits of cork or screwcap, however; its about me complaining about a very specific closure: the One+One. Beside from having a silly name, the One+One cork is a miserable failure, in my not-so-humble opinion, of design. First off, meet the culprit:
The One+One cork consists of two discs (of natural or synthetic cork) with an agglomerate center. Why does the One+One irk me so? The One+One combines all the physical hassle of removing a cork with none of the aesthetic romanticism of a natural cork. Worse yet, unlike a wholly synthetic cork which makes no attempt at disguising itself, the One+One mocks those who pull it by unsuccessfully trying to hide its Frankensteinian self by incorporating cork in design. Maybe I’m just paranoid; not too many people think wine closures are capable of taunting.
So how did this happen? Who thought it would be a good idea to offer some function (it still keeps wine in the bottle) and none of the form? Well the fact of the matter is that the One+One cork actually does serve some purpose. You see, agglomerate corks are held together by resin-based glue. Over time, contact with wine breaks down the resin and the cork falls to pieces. The One+One solved this problem by placing natural or synthetic cork between the wine and agglomerate cork. Where things went wrong is that in trying to solve one problem, agglomerate cork deterioration, designers ignored the larger problem, how to make a better stopper.
Why must we be torn between cork and screwcap? It is this division that has people creating monsters like the One+One cork in the hopes of placating a public who they think wants a cork-like closure at the cost of good design. In the words of Jancis Robinson, I plead, “Won’t someone design us an effective but more aesthetically pleasing stopper?”
Scott Rosenbaum is director of operations for the International Wine Center and wine buyer for the retailer DrinkUpNY.
Scott - pretty soon our lawyers will ask us to add some sort of Snooth disclaimer: “the views expressed herein are those of the author only…”
However, its a great post, so keep it up!
There’s another very good reason for solving the agglomerate cork viability problem — there’s a lot of the stuff, it’s cheaper than natural cork (wait, it is natural cork, just glued together pieces), and some people will definitely think it’s just as good as a real cork.
Well, maybe it’s not a *very* good reason, but if you’re looking for a better value it’s an option.
From an environmental standpoint, natural cork isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s unsustainable. Cork trees take decades to grow, and as such the supply cannot keep up with demand. Self-assembling nano-corks, anyone?
I still dont think its been resolved that there is a superior stopper material. For young wines not meant to be aged a screw cap it perfectly fine. But for wines that are meant for 20 years of aging? What other material provides exactly the correct level of pourous-ness (?) so that the wine can age (aka oxidize) ever so gently, yet not so rapidly that it turns to vinegar?
I like glass cork stoppers found on a lot of Austrian wines. They even stop the white wine from leaking in the fridge.